Marine League coaches who forfeited games feel | College News
Four Marine League soccer coaches who had their groups forfeit games against Narbonne last season in protest of the City Section and Los Angeles Unified School District failing to examine alleged rule violations in the Gauchos’ program are feeling a bit of vindication after a Narbonne booster said he paid mother and father of gamers to switch to the Harbor City faculty.
They imagine their actions had been warranted to spotlight the problems seen off the sector in high faculty soccer despite receiving criticism from some. An LAUSD investigation ultimately decided a group of Narbonne gamers had been ineligible, and the City Section imposed a three-year playoff ban on Narbonne for rule violations.
Mike Christensen, the previous Carson soccer coach, said he’s “sad” that the booster Brett Steigh has admitted involvement in the continued Bishop Montgomery soccer scandal that has resulted in the crew’s season coming to an end. Steigh also helped finance St. Bernard’s soccer program, which shut down its crew in 2021, 2022 and 2023 following the resignation of coach Manuel Douglas, a former Narbonne coach.
Christensen said coaches who participated in the forfeits last 12 months confronted repercussions from faculty district personnel, “but it needed to be done.”
“My relationship with my principal was never the same,” Christensen said.
Perhaps the coach under the most strain was former Banning coach Raymond Grajeda, who was the first to forfeit his league recreation to Narbonne. Then the three others adopted.
“We got punished hard from the district office,” Grajeda said. “It was one of the reasons for me quitting.”
He said all the rumors about money altering arms and faculty officers declining to examine without evidence was motivation to the coaches as a unit to strive to stop the rule violations.
“Everything was true,” Grajeda said. “We live in the community. Some of those deals that went down, they were in our backyard. If you’re going to do the transfer thing, do it right. I feel some sense of relief. The future of football in this area, we want to be competitive and fair.”
Former Gardena coach Monty Gilbreath said, “I think it turned out to be good because we were able to bring attention what was going on and caused the City Section to take a closer look. We knew as coaches it was a fact. We didn’t have the means to prove it.”
Christensen retired, Gilbreath resigned as did Grajeda, who now spends his time watching his freshman daughter play flag soccer for Banning.
Only San Pedro coach Corey Walsh saved teaching this season.
“I do not care at all,” Walsh said of the response to the booster accepting accountability for the unlawful funds. “We’re playing Great Oak this week. I was trying to see the bigger picture. I knew where this was headed if something didn’t change.”
Christensen said last January he was attending a coaches’ conference when a number of coaches got here up to him and thanked him for taking a stand last fall.
“This has to stop,” he said.
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